The Howard Zinn Bookfair is a celebration of the books that make us rethink our roles in the world and connect people with hidden histories and it will be held at San Francisco’s Mission High School on November 15, 2014.
The day-long Fair also celebrates the legacy of Howard Zinn, author of Peoples’ History of the United States. Over 60 booksellers and 100 authors including Robin DG Kelley, Rebecca Solnit, Walidah Imarisha, and TJ English will be participating.
2014 Howard Zinn Book Fair
Saturday, November 15, 2014 | 10 am to 5 pm
Mission High School, 3750 18th St, San Francisco
FREE
Who is Howard Zinn? Howard Zinn was a historian, author, professor, playwright, and activist. His life’s work focused on a wide range of issues including race, class, war, and history, and touched the lives of countless people. Zinn was the author of dozens of books, including A People’s History of the United States. He received many awards including the Lannan Foundation Literary Award for Nonfiction, the Eugene V. Debs award for his writing and political activism, and the Ridenhour Courage Prize.
2014 Program:
BILL SORRO SAN FRANCISCO HISTORY ROOM #201
11AM-NOON Taking Back: Land and Liberty Dialogue about the future of San Francisco and cities. With: Karl Beitel, author of Local Protest, Global Movements: Capital, Community and State in San Francisco; Maria Zumudio Tommi Avicolli Mecca, Tracy Parent.
12:15-1:15 Elizabeth ‘Betita’ Martinez: A Life in Struggle Tribute to Elizabeth ‘Betita’ Martinez is the author of 500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures. With: Tony Platt, editor of Elizabeth ‘Betita’ Martinez: A Life in Struggle; Mike Davis, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Favianna Rodriguez, Olga Talamante.
1:30-2:30 Born and Raised In Frisco: Po’ PoetsbBorn N’ Raised in Frisco is an ongoing writing herstory/history project born and or raised in the indigenous Ohlone Territory named after Saint Francis de Assisi. With: Tiny Gray-Garcia (Criminal of Poverty), Tony Robles, Ingrid De Leon, Bruce Allison
2:45-3:45 Ten Years That Shook The City Shaping San Francisco’s 2011 Ten Years That Shook the City: San Francisco 1968-78 is an anthology of writings covering a vital and explosive decade in the City’s history. With: Jason Ferreira; Lincoln Cushing; Jesse Drew; Mary Jean Robinson
4:00-5:00 Young Queer Writers Speakout! A panel of young, queer writers will read original pieces about their experiences being LGBTQQIA, and then have a discussion and answer audience questions. With: Frieda Baldonado, Gabe Pine, Kenneth Chou, Sophie Drukman-Feldstein, Rosanonymous
JUNE JORDAN/AMIRI BARAKA ROOM #202
11-NOON Poetry of Exile Poets explore the concept of exile: forced, chosen, external and internal. With: Zein El Amine, Henry Mills, Angela Abinar, Egyptian spoken word artist, Aimee Suzara, author Souvenir, Lateef Mc Cloud
12:15-1:15 Anthropology and Activism The students and activists from Anthropology and Social Change will discuss the practice of collaborative research that blurs the distinction between the researcher and her object. With: Andrej Grubacic, Associate Professor/Chair of Anthropology at the California Institute for Integral Studies, Sara Maria Acevedo, JR Karlin, Austin Lawhead, and Claudia Lodia.
1:30-2:30 Dismantle: An Anthology of Writing from the VONA/Voices Writing Workshop Readings from Anthology of Writing from the VONA/Voices Writing Workshop, (Thread Makes Blanket Press) the first-ever VONA anthology. With: Tara Dorabji KPFA journalist, VONA alum, Faith Adiele, Adam Balm, Presenter: Sharline Chiang, Minal Hajratwala.
2:45-3:45 Bay Area South Asian Writers Panel and Reading. Bay Area South Asian writers commemorate the memory of Howard Zinn and his dedication to bringing the marginalized to the center of the narrative. With: Moazzam Sheikh, Mahmud Rahman, Shabnam Nadiya and Ali Eteraz.
4:00-5:00 San Francisco Noir San Francisco has always been Noir and Gumshoe turf and the evolution of these genres in the Cool Gray City of Love has been no better exemplified that in the noir fiction and mystery writing of this roundtable’s participants. With: F.S. Rosa, Sin Soracco Edge City, John Goins A Portrait in the Tenderloin, Susie Hara, Finder of Lost Objects
TILLIE OLSEN ROOM#206
11-NOON Japanese Americans During the Internment Utilizing visual media, this slide presentation details the underdocumented World War II era efforts of non-Japanese Americans who acted in solidarity with Japanese Americans during the latter’s incarceration. With :Shizue Seigel, author of In Good Conscience: Supporting Japanese Americans During the Internment
12:15-1:15 CIVIO Game Demonstration CIVIO is a strategy card game that explores the relationship of issues, freedoms, laws, and Supreme Court cases that have both strengthened and reduced civil rights and civil liberties. The beautifully illustrated cards also make a useful review tool for landmark Supreme Court decisions. CIVIO’S creators will be on hand to show how to play the game as a way of teaching People’s History.
1:30-2:30 To March for Others: The Black Freedom Struggle and the United Farm Workers The recently published volume To March for Others: The Black Freedom Struggle and the United Farm Workers examines approaches towards multiracial coalition building within the black freedom struggle by analyzing the relationships between five major civil rights/black power organizations and the UFW. With: Lauren Araiza, Professor of History at Denison University, author of To March for Others: The Black Freedom Struggle and the United Farm Workers, Mike Miller, former head of the San Francisco office of SNCC, Bill Jennings, member of the Black Panther Party
2:45-3:45 Forgotten California: Upton Sinclair, Runaway Slaves, Suffragists, Immigrants, Strikers, and the Real Radical California. Historians discuss the radical populist politics that shaped California. Panelist: Jay Martin, Upton Sinclair scholar, Elaine Elinson and Stan Yogi, authors of Wherever There’s a Fight: How Runaway Slaves, Suffragists, Immigrants, Strikers, and Poets Shaped Civil Liberties in California
4:00-5:00 Captive Nation: Black Prison Organizing in the Civil Rights Era Captive Nation is based on years of archival research and interviews with key participants in the prison movement of the 1960s and 1970s, with special emphasis on the California prison movement. With: Dan Berger, Author Captive Nation,Luis Bato Talamantez, former prisoner, Rachel Herzing, Critical Resistance
GLORIA E. ANZADUA ROOM #207
11-NOON Out of Control: A Fifteen Year Battle Against Control Unit Prisons The Committee to end the Marion Lockdown is a group in Chicago that fought in the 1980s and 1990s to end long-term solitary confinement and developed an analysis of U.S. prisons as institutions of social control of people of color. Out of Control, published by Freedom Archives, tells this story.With: Nancy Kurshan, Author of Out of Control and legendary activist, Manuel La Fontaine, All Of Us Or None.
12:15-1:15 Remembering Chicano History, Building Chicano Futures Author-activists discuss the legacy of the Chicano movement within the New Left, and the future of Chicano politics today. With: Judy Zalazar Drummond, Teacher’s Guide for “500 Years of Chicano History,” and Memoirs of Los Siete De La Raza, Roger Alvarado, Donna James Almador, poet, Oscar Rios.
1:30-2:30 Save Our Unions: Dispatches from A Movement Save Our Unions: Dispatches from A Movement in Distress, published in 2013, draws on both essays and reporting by the author to look at the state of the labor movement. Steve Early, Save Our Unions: Dispatches from A Movement in Distress; Labor Journalist and CWA-TNG Local 39521/Pacific Media Workers Guild member, Chris Finn, President, ATU 1555 and BART strike activist, Kung Feng: Jobs With Justice San Francisco’s Lead Organizer, Marilyn Albert, RN and staff organizer for National Union of Healthcare Workers, Tenaya Lafore, longtime labor activist and organizer for unions in California and Vermont.
2:45-3:45 Who Was John Brown? What would the world look like if John Brown and Harriet Tubman had successfully catalyzed a revolution in 1861? Terry Bisson, author Fire From the Mountain, will explain exactly who was John Brown, dispelling myths about America’s most celebrated and demonized anti-racist revolutionary. With : Terry Bisson, Fire From the Mountain
4:00-5:00 In Our Power: U.S. Students Organize For Justice in Palestine The host of WPFW’s Shay wa Naa Naa (tea with mint) interviews Nora Barrows-Friedman about her new book on the history of Students For Justice in Palestine. With: Zein El-Amine, host of WPFW’s Shay wa Naa Naa (Tea with Mint), Nora Barrows-Friedman, author In Our Power: U.S. Students Organize for Justice in Palestine, Cate Malek and Mateo Hoke, editors of Palestine Speaks.
CARLO TRESCA ROOM #208
11AM-NOON Drug War Capitalism Drug War Capitalism isn’t a book about prohibition or drug policy. Rather, it examines how the war on drugs is one in which terror is used against the population at large in cities and rural areas in Mexico, Columbia, and Central America. With: Dawn Marie Paley, author Drug War Capitalism
12:15-1:15 The End of the World As We Know It? Crisis, Resistance and Austerity Discussion of the new collection of stories, analyses, and reflections on the economic crisis, from the crisis of working people to the elites. The collection is rooted in attempts by anti-capitalists to act in the world in ways intended to bring about different social relations based on mutual aid, cooperation, and freedom.With: Deric Shannon editor, End of the World as We Know It? Crisis, Resistance and Austerity, Marie Trigona, William Armaline.
1:30-2:30 Tribute to June Jordan June Jordan (1936-2002) was a poet and UC Berkeley professor who is celebrated for her contributions as a human rights activist, poet, and social critic. Through her work, she taught a concept of “life as activism.” With: Stacy Russo, Santa Ana College, editor of Life as Activism: June Jordan’s Writings from The Progressive, Ananda Esteva, Leticia Del Toro, Hatty Lee, editor, Aimee Suzara,
2:45-3:45 Another Politics: Talking Across Today’s Transformative Movements Drawing on interviews with dozens of experienced organizers, Another Politics engages the convergence of anti-authoritarian radicalism and broader-based movements in the U.S. and Canada. These efforts combine anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, anti-oppression politics with grassroots organizing among ordinary, non-activist people. With author Chris Dixon, Clare Bayard.
4:00-5:00 A Sliver of Light: Three Americans Imprisoned in Iran In July 2009, Iranian border guards arrested American hikers Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer, and Josh Fattal who had unknowingly crossed over to Iran from Iraqi Kurdistan. Detained, accused of espionage, and held in Tehran’s infamous Evin Prison. With: Sarah Shourd and Shane Bauer former captives and co-authors of A Sliver of Light: Three Americans Imprisoned in Iran
HARRIET TUBMAN ROOM #209
11AM-NOON BOOK RELEASE EVENT! House Keys Not Handcuffs The story of community organizing efforts to end homelessness in San Francisco provides a meaningful framework for organizers creating a community-based social justice movement in the United States.. With: Paul Boden is a firebrand organizer and co-founder of the Coalition on Homelessness, SF. He currently directs the Western Regional Advocacy Project.
12:15-1:15 Reform, Revolution and the Capitalist State: Theories from Lenin to Chavez. If ecological disaster, imperialism, oppression and exploitation are intrinsic to capitalism, then social movements must find a way to replace this system with one based on social justice and economic planning. But if this is our goal, can it be achieved without challenging the state power that dominates us today and replacing it with something fundamentally different. Is that even possible? With: George Ciccariello-Maher, assistant professor in Drexel University’s Department of History and Politics and author of We Created Chavez: A People’s History of the Venezuelan Revolution (Duke University Press, 2013) and Todd Chretien, editor of new edition of State and Revolution by V.I. Lenin (Haymarket 2014) and frequent contributor to the International Socialist Revew.
1:30-2:30 An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States This hot-off-the-presses, groundbreaking book recasts “American” history through the lens of Indigenous People while busting- down the creation myths of the United States.” With: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States
2:45-3:45 Art, Occupation and Activism: From Gaza to Lebanon to Oakland CA Lara Kiswani, director of Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) and Susan Greene, director of Art Forces, will present on public art and public action. The projects to be discussed will include Block the Boat actions and interdisciplinary projects in refugee camps in Lebanon. With: Susan Greene, Bay Area muralist, Lara Kiswani AROC
4:00-5:00 Reboot the Rainbow: Lessons from the Original Rainbow Coalitions The original Rainbow Coalition was an attempt by the Chicago Black Panther Party, Young Lords, and Young Patriots to build working-class unity in a time of intense racial division. Can their model of “organize your own, but march together,” be relevant to today’s organizers and activists politicized by Occupy, police brutality, and environmental disaster? With: Amy Sonnie, co-author Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, Hy Thurman, Young Patriots Organization, Aaron Dixon, Black Panther Party, author My People Are Rising, Jakobi Williams, author From the Bullet to the Ballot: The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and Racial Coalition Politics in Chicago
FRIDA KAHLO/JOHN HEARTFIELD ROOM #211
11AM-NOON Platica What should a 21st century community based practice that values social justice and systems change look like? This panel will address this key question in their discussion about the history of community based art models in the Xicana/o movement. With: Artists Jesus Barraza, Artist Malaquias Montoya, Artist, Celia Herrera Rodriguez, Artist, Jason Ferreria, Author of “With the Soul of a Human Rainbow: Los Siete, Black Panthers, and Third Worldism in San Francisco,” in Ten Years that Shook the City: San Francisco, 1968-1978
12:15-1:15 Rebel Worlds: Science Fiction and Social Change The genre of Science Fiction/Speculative Fiction is exploding with new voices bringing with them wildly dissident perspectives on race, class, gender and revolution.With: Walidah Imarisha, co-editor, Octavia’s Brood, Sam J. Miller, winner, Shirley Jackson Award and editor Horror After 9/11, Terry Bisson, author Fire on the Mountain, Emily Lee, facilitator.
1:30-2:30 Situationism & The Bureau of Public Secrets Ken Knabb is best known for his meticulous translations of Guy Debord and the Situationist International, but he is also an original and provocative author in his own right. Ken will discuss passages from his book Public Secrets, from his writings about the Occupy movement, from his translations of May 1968 graffiti, and from his new annotated translation of Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle. With: Ken Knabb, author
2:45-3:45 William S. Burroughs: The Complexities and Guilty Pleasures of Radical Literature This year marks the 100th Birthday of William S. Burroughs, whose books, such as Naked Lunch influenced generations of authors and artists with their anti-authoritarian vision. Recently, his legacy has been challenged by feminists and others pointing out currents of mysogyny in his work. With: V. Vale, Musician, Publisher & Author of RE/Search, Rebekah Weikel, Publisher Penny Ante-Editions.
4:00-5:00 The People’s History of Art Most people outside of the art world view art as something that is foreign to their experiences and everyday lives. In a brilliant new edition to The New Press People’s History series, A People’s Art History of the United States places art history squarely in the rough-and-tumble of politics, social struggles, and the fight for justice from the colonial era through the present day. With: Nicholas Lampert, author A People’s Art History of the United States, Fernando Martí, local artist and printmaker
LUCY PARSONS ROOM #216
11AM-NOON The Right to Stay Home: How US Policy Drives Mexican Migration Author discussion of his work, including The Right to Stay Home: How US Policy Drives Mexican Migration Labor; followed by Q&A with the audience. With: David Bacon, Photographer and Author of writer and photographer David Bacon will discuss his book, The Right to Stay Home: How US Policy Drives Mexican Migration Labor
12:15-1:15 The Sounds of Black Power Conversation, slideshow and audio presentation on the impact of music on the Black Power Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. With: Ricky Vincent, author, Party Music: The Inside Story of the Black Panthers Band, and How Black Power Transformed Soul Music and Pat Thomas, author, Listen Whitey: The Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975.
1:30-2:30 Special Event: Author Reading TJ English True Crime stories are irresistible. Whether on a screen or a page, there is a seemingly bottomless appetite for works about anti- heroes like Al Capone, Ellis Albert “Al” Swearengen, or Bonnie and Clyde. Through non-fiction books and journalism, T.J. English, has been telling us about the American underworld for more than twenty years. His groundbreaking book: Savage City: Race, Murder, and a Generation on the Edge explores the war between the NYPD and the Black Power Movement. With: T.J. English, Author of WHITEY’S PAYBACK: And Other True Stories of Gangsterism, Murder, Corruption, and Revenge
2:45-3:45 The Political Economy of San Francisco: Crisis, Reform, and Resistance Author James Tracy interviews comrades from the front lines of empowerment organizing in San Francisco. The authors/interviewees, colleagues from People Organized Winning Employment Rights (POWER), will reflect upon key fights in San Francisco’s history of displacement, and the role of popular resistance in these battles. Their book, Towards Land, Work and Power has just been reissued in a 10th anniversary edition. With: James Tracy, author of Dispatches Against Displacement: Field Notes From San Francisco’s Wars For Home, Jaron Browne, POWER organizer and co-author, Towards Land Work and Power: Charting a Path of Resistance to U.S.-Led Imperialism, Steve Williams, Left Roots
4:00-5:00 The New Jacobins? Bhaskar Sunkara – founding editing of Jacobin Magazine. Bhaskar will discuss Jacobin’s role in popularizing socialism among a new layer of activists and educators. With: Bhaskar Sunkara and Todd Chretien.
ROSA LUXEMBURG ROOM #216
11AM-12:00 101 Changemakers In the great tradition of Howard Zinn, 101 Changemakers (Haymarket Books 2012) offers a “peoples’ history” version of the individuals who have shaped our country for middle school and high school students: Tecumseh, Harriet Tubman, Mark Twain, César Chávez, Rachel Carson, Harvey Milk, Henry Wallace, and many more. With: Dao X Tran (ed.), Jessie Muldoon (contributor).
12:15-1:15 Death on the Commons: Toward Caring Communities The (psycho)pharmaceutical-industrial complex is one of the few “growth” economies in today’s capitalism, setting profit above people’s bodies, and turning care and death into commodities. In what might seem counterintuitive, this workshop will explore (politically and experientially) how dying well within commons of care like hospices and embracing mutual aid self-care—applying anarchistic ethics to death—when extended “backward” to the whole of our lives, might supply keys to increasingly de-commodified well-being within communities of care. With: Cindy Milstein, author of Anarchism and Its Aspirations, more TBA
1:30-2:30 From Oscar Grant to Alan Blueford: Families Stand Against Police Brutality. This session will be led by mothers whose children have been killed by the police. They will tell their stories and share the lessons they’ve learned organizing to win justice from the racist system of police terror. With: Wanda Johnson (mother of Oscar Grant), Jeralynn Blueford (mother of Alan Blueford) and Jack Bryson
2:45-3:45 Jewish Solidarity with Palestine: Jewish Voice for Peace/Bay Area An intergenerational team of JVP activists – Susannah Nachenberg, Penny Rosenwasser,– will share personal narratives about the transformative process that brought them, as visible US Jews, to working to end the Israeli occupation, and for Palestinian human rights. Penny will include stories from her new book, Hope into Practice, Jewish women choosing justice despite our fears With: Susannah Nachenberg, Penny Rosenwasser
4:00-5:00 Education and Capitalism: Struggles for Learning and Education This book, written by teacher activists, draws on the ideas and experiences of social justice educators concerned with fighting against racism and for equality, and those of activists oriented on recapturing the radical roots of the labor movement. Informed by a revolutionary vision of pedagogy, schools, and education, it paints a radical critique of education in Corporate America, past and present, and contributes to a vision of alternatives for education and liberation. With: Elizabeth Terzakis (contributor), Literature Instructor at Cañada College, more TBA.
FRED HAMPTON ROOM #218
11AM-NOON Building Fighting Teachers Unions: From Chicago’s Strike to Test Boycotts and Beyond.In the wake of the 2012 Chicago teachers’ strike, a ripple of job actions, contract fights and test boycotts have challenged the corporate education deformers. This talk will discussion will share experiences across these struggles and draw the lessons for the next round. With: Jesse Hagopian, Seattle public school teacher and author of More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing (Haymarket 2014).
12:15-1:15 Howard Zinn’s Voices of a People’s History Ten Year Anniversary Teaching and Performing Howard Zinn’s Voices of a People’s History of the United States. Ten years ago, Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove produced the companion volume, Voices of a People’s History of the United States, featuring the speeches, songs, petitions, and writings of dissenters and changemakers such as Frederick Douglass, Chief Joseph, Sojourner Truth, and Malcolm X. A special ten-year anniversary volume releasing November 11 will feature Chelsea Manning, Glenn Greenwald, and Chicago’s striking teachers, among other voices from contemporary struggles. With: Anthony Arnove, co-editor of Voices of a People’s History of the United States and Brenda Coughlin, direct or of the organization Voices of a People’s History. Arnove and Coughlin are also the coproducers of the Academy Award-nominated documentary Dirty Wars.
1:30-2:30 All That’s Left to Us: BDS, Anticolonial Struggle and the New Generation of Palestinian Resistance from the Bay to Gaza Organized by AROC: Arab Resource and Organizing Center In Ghassan Kanafani’s novel, All That’s Left to You, readers are presented with an illustration of the Palestinian lived experience that traces the disruption of al-Nakba, the trauma it inflicts and the actions it necessitates by the colonized. Today we are witnessing eruptions of this necessary action by Palestinians and Arabs, particularly youth. Join AROC and their Arab Youth Organizing members in a discussion about the recent organizing of the four day “Block the Boat” action at the Port of Oakland in the SF Bay Area, fighting policing and militarism, and the way in which the Bay is taking part in the global Boycott Divestment and Sactions movement. With: Lara Kiswani: AROC Executive Director
2:45-3:45 Worth Fighting For: An Army Rangers Journey Out of the Military and Across America
Pat Tillman’s death by friendly fire was covered up just days before his comrade Rory Fanning—who served in the same unit as Tillman—left the Army Rangers as a conscientious objector. Disquieted by his tours in Afghanistan, Fanning sets out to honor Tillman’s legacy by crossing the United States on foot. With: Rory Fanning who walked across the United States for the Pat Tillman Foundation in 2008–2009, following two deployments to Afghanistan with the 2nd Army Ranger Battalion. Author of Worth Fighting For: An Army Rangers Journey Out of the Military and Across America
4:00-5:00 Tomas Moniz and Friends Local author and zinester Tomas Moniz (Rad Dad!) is a major force in the local radical literary scene. He host the monthly Lyrics and Dirges reading at Pegasus Books and is one of the organizers of Bay Area Zine fest. He is also one hell of a great writer. He’ll be joined by Virgie Tovar, BrendaMontano, Shenaaz Janmohamed and Anne Marie Mumm, all up-and-coming authors to watch out for. With: Tomas Moniz, author Bellies and Buffalos, Virgie Tovar, Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love & Fashion, Brenda Montano, zinester, Shenaaz Janmohamed, Totally Radical Muslims, Anne Marie Munn, Lady Bones Collective
RACHEL CARSON ROOM#220
11-NOON Confronting the Ecological Crisis Robin Hahnel, a leading voice in radical political economy and Tom Athanasiou, renowned expert of just transitions in conversation about saving the planet and advancing racial and economic justice. With: Robin Hahnel and Tom Athansiou
12:15-1:15 Rebecca Solnit Explains Things to Us (And We Like It) In her comic, scathing essay “Men Explain Things to Me,” Rebecca Solnit took on what often goes wrong in conversations between men and women. She wrote about men who wrongly assume they know things and wrongly assume women don’t, about why this arises, and how this aspect of the gender wars works, airing some of her own hilariously awful encounters. She ends on a serious note— because the ultimate problem is the silencing of women who have something to say, including those saying things like, “He’s trying to kill me!” Solnit will be on hand to read from the essay and talk about the intense international reaction to it. With: Rebecca Solnit
1:30-2:30 All Power to the Imagination: The Art and Illuminated Visions of Eric Drooker From his beginnings as a street artist associated with NYC’s World War 3 Magazine to New Yorker Magazine covers, no artist has influence contemporary dissident art more than Eric Drooker. Drooker will be on hand to share old favorites, and possibly a sneak peak of new work. With: Eric Drooker
2:45-3:45 For the Hearts and Minds of White People in the Fight for Racial Justice The uprising in Ferguson during a yet another season of high profile murders of Black people ignited the country in protest and again showed the depth of white rage towards communities of color, particularly the Black community. The panel is based in the belief that white people must be brought into, what longtime Southern anti-racist Anne Braden called, the “Other America” of multiracial democracy and socialism, rather then the America of the lynchers.
With: Chris Crass: author of Collective Liberation: Anti-Racist Organizing, Feminist Praxis, and Movement Building Strategy and Rahula Janowski
4:00-5:00 Killing Trayvons: An Anthology of American Violence This anthology tracks the case and explores why Trayvon’s name and George Zimmerman’s not guilty verdict symbolized all the grieving, the injustice, the profiling and free passes based on white privilege and police power: the long list of Trayvons known and unknown. With: Kevin Alexander Gray, Robin DG Kelly, Jeffrey St. Clair
YURI KOCHIYAMA ROOM #221
11AM-NOON Fifty Issues of the Fire Inside: Voices of Women and Transgender Prisoners. In June 1996, the California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP) began to publish The Fire Inside,1 a project embarked upon by women prisoners inside California state prisons in collaboration with former prisoners and advocates on the outside. Since that time the newsletter has published continuously and is currently the only journal in the country by and about women and transgender prisoners. In the summer of 2014, the Fire Inside will publish its 50th issue which will include reflections on the significance of evolving and sustaining such a newsletter over the past 18 years. Panelist: Diana Block, author of Arm the Spirit: An Activist’s Journey Underground and Back and co-editor of The Fire Inside.Pam Fadem, Fire Inside editorial collective, Samantha Rogers, CCWP program coordinator, formerly incarcerated,Windy Click, CCWP coordinating committee, formerly incarcerated
12:15-1:15 Asian American Radicals and the Myth of the Model Minority Activist Diana Macasa will outline the myths behind the “model minority” in the history of the fight for Asian civil rights in the US. With:Diana Macasa
1:30-2:30 What is Progressive? In Unreasonable Men: Theodore Roosevelt and the Republican Rebels Who Created Progressive Politics, author Michael Wolraich chronicles the twists and turns of the turn of the 20th Century Progressive Movement. This era led to important labor and social reforms, many of which are under assault today. He’ll be joined in conversation by Supervisor John Avalos as they explore this era and what it means to be progressive today. With: Michael Wolraich, author and journalist who has contributed to The Atlantic, Daily Beast, New York Magazine, CNN.com, Talking Points Memo, and Reuters, Supervisor John Avalos, former candidate for Mayor of San Francisco
2:45-3:45 The Politics of Memory Join a reading featuring two dynamic authors and documentarians. Julia Allen has unearthed the hidden history of Anna Rochester and Grace Hutchins, two women of considerable inherited wealth who became stalwarts of the Depression Era Labor Movement. Ariel Gore is a tour-de force zinester, editor, author and agitator whose latest book explores about caregiving, relationships between mothers and daughters and personal politics. With: Julia Allen, author of Passionate Commitments: The Lives of Anna Rochester and Grace Hutchins, Ariel Gore, editor/publisher of Hip Mama, and author of The End of Eve: A Memoir
4:00-5:00 Communications From Below: The People’s History of Radical and Grassroots Media Panelists discuss the rich contributions and histories of media activism that built computer networks, guerilla television, pirate radio stations, radical film collectives, soapbox oration traditions, alternative journalism and many other information systems we depend upon. With: Jesse Drew is the author of A Social History of Contemporary Democratic Media, Carla Leshne is the author of essays on The Film and Photo League movement in Film History, OtherZine, Meet Me at the Fair: A World’s Fair Reader and The Encyclopedia of Social Movement Media, Kari Lydersen is a journalist and author of Mayor 1%: Rahm Emanuel and the Rise of Chicago’s 99 Percent, and Revolt on Goose Island: The Chicago Factory Takeover, and What it Says About the Economic Crisis.
EDWARD SAID ROOM #222
11AM-NOON NORCAL ISM WRITES : The Northern California International Solidarity Movement on the page
“…The ISM is based in Palestine and led by Palestinians on the ground. ISM support groups, like the group here in the San Francisco Bay area, and others around the world assist the ISM by disseminating information, recruiting and training individuals to join us.” ISM uses only non-violent, direct action and non hierarchical organizing methods. Members of the Northern California International Solidarity Movement (Norcal ISM) http://www.ism-norcal.org/ read from their books, anthologies, blogs and newsletters regarding their and others’ solidarity work in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since 2002. With: Paul Larudee. Panelists TBA, will include Norcal ISM members who have traveled to the Occupied Territories. Texts read, referenced or available at the Norcal ISM table (partial list): Gaza Mom: Palestine, Parenting, Politics And Everything In Between: Leila El Hadad; Witness in Palestine: A Jewish Women in the Occupied Territories- Anna Baltzer; Live from Palestine: Int’l Palestinian Direct Action Against the Israeli Occupation; Stop the Wall Edited by: The Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network – Lunch at the Muqata’a F.S. Rosa 2014
12:15-1:15 Living in the Shadow of the Cross Understanding and Resisting the Power and Privilege of Christian Hegemony Living in the Shadow of the Cross reveals the ongoing, everyday impact of Christian power and privilege on our beliefs, behaviors, and public policy, and emphasizes the potential for people to come together to resist domination and build and sustain communities of justice and peace. With: Paul Kivel, author Living in the Shadow of the Cross
1:30-2:30 Choosing to Be Free: The Story of Rick Turner Rick Turner was one of South Africa’s most original and powerful thinkers and is remembered today as a remarkable teacher and activist. For almost ten years, from 1968, when he returned to South Africa from his studies at the Sorbonne, to 1978, when he was shot by an unknown assassin, Rick Turner played an important role in the opposition to apartheid, especially by provoking whites to expand their vision of what South Africa could be. Believing in the ‘necessity of utopian thinking’, he wrote a short book, The eye of the needle (1972), that sought to envision a very different kind of society. With: BIlly Kiniston, author Choosing to Be Free.
2:45-3:45 I Saw Fire: Riots Revolt and the Black Block Doug Gilbert discusses riots and revolt from the teargas filled streets of Oakland, California during the Occupy movement to Phoenix, Arizona facing down Neo-Nazi skinheads. Discussing violence, social change, and organization at length, Gilbert examines why many young people are turning away from the organizations which have historically sold-out the working class—and starting a riot of their own. With: Doug Gilbert, author I Saw Fire
4:00-5:00 Native American Resistance in the 21st Century: Idle No More and the Climate Justice Movement In winter 2012, Idle No More emerged as a movement led by First Nations women, youth, and elders in Canada and the US to protect Indigenous rights and the environment. Although “Idle No More” itself is a new movement, the Indigenous struggle against colonization, genocide, and the theft and exploitation of lands driven by capitalism has existed for centuries. When much of the environmental movement was in retreat over the last 20 years, Native peoples have been resisting the destruction and pollution of their land, water and air, while drawing attention to the direct violence and displacement imposed on Indigenous peoples as inextricably linked to that environmental violence. With: Pennie Opal Plant, Idle No More Bay Area, Ragina Johnson, International Socialist Organization
JAMES BALDWIN ROOM #224
11:00-NOON Arizona Banned Books Update In 2012, the Tucson Unified School District dismantled ethic studies and issued an extensive list of books banned inside its schools including those from authors Sherman Alexie, Paulo Friere, and even William Shakespeare. With: Joy Soler, owner of Tucson’s Revolutionary Grounds for an update on Arizona’s movement against racist book ban.
12:15-1:15 Theater of Incarceration Two short plays about the Prison Industrial Complex. Hell in Paradise: My visit to Pelican Bay State Prison Written and performed by Charlie Hinton based on the prison letters of Clyde Jackson. Opening the Box is a play inspired and informed by in-depth interviews Sarah Shourd conducted—either through mail of prison visits—with over a dozen individuals across the country who are currently living in, or who have lived through, prolonged solitary confinement in US prisons.
1:30-2:30 Supporting Local Bookstores in a Time of Gentrification The loss of the legendary Marcus Bookstore, the nation’s longest running Black-Owned bookstore has helped to focus attention on the future of independent bookstores facing potential displacement. Caught between neighborhood gentrification and predatory online pricing, do bookstores even have a future? Come learn about what people are doing to save cherished stores and preserve intellectual life in the City. With: Denise Sullivan, author of Keep on Pushing” Black Power Music From Blues to Hip Hop, joined by local booksellers TBA.
2:45-3:45 The Political Legacy of Ted Gullicksen This past October, San Francisco lost one of its most stalwart fighters for the human right to housing, Ted Gullicksen. Ted was equally comfortable leading occupations of vacant housing and expertly cutting turf to expand tenant rights at the ballot box. This panel with gather those who knew Ted and worked with him to begin to record his extensive political legacy and lessons for today. With: Gen Fujioka, Chinatown Community Development Center, Andrew Szeto, SF Tenants Union, Fred Scherbern-Zimmer, Eviction Free SF, Bobby Coleman, SF Tenants Union
4:00-5:00 Movement Lit Three great women authors read published work and manuscripts in progress. Barbara Rhine – Author of Tell No Lies reads from her new novel about three radical activists—a black militant on the run, a farm worker organizer and a Berkeley feminist—who get caught in a love triangle during a huge UFW march led by Cesar Chavez. With: Barbara Rhine, author Tell No Lies. Ananda Esteva’s The Stories of Chela Coatlicue Alvarez is a young adult adventure through Mexico exploring the global economy, gender and rebellion using a “Choose Your Own Adventure” interactive structure. In her new book, “What Did You Learn at Work Today? Forbidden Lessons of Labor Education,” Helena Worthen tells stories from her years as a labor educator, frames them theoretically, and show how to avoid some of the deadly mistakes made by unions that think building solidarity is like selling a car.